Twilight Of The Gods
by Arid Tundra
Summary: Post-apocalyptic. The Earl has been defeated, and the akuma roam free around the crumbling city of London. Stranded with only Timcanpy and akuma for company, Allen struggles simply to survive whilst not knowing what has become of his fellow exorcists.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own D. Gray-man. Woe.

A/N: Well, here goes my first D. Gray-man fic. It's based in London, where I've never been, so if Wikipedia lies to me and I say something about the city that's completely wrong tell me and I'll fix it up. I debated making this Yullen but I don't know how I'd incorporate that… so there'll be no romance. Please review, and try give me some constructive criticism too because I feel that I could write much better : ]

* * *

The building creaked strangely, tiny showers of white plaster raining down on him from the ceiling as the near-destroyed place strained under their feet. The wooden walls of the hallway they were slinking through were water-stained and smelled of damp and mould, the greyish-white ceiling split by spidery fault lines. Scanning the wooden floor in front of him for any holes, he followed the golden golem that was scouting the way, leading them through the building using the safest route possible.

His stomach rumbled again, and he grimaced as the sensation actually caused him physical pain. He couldn't remember the last time he ate – more than a week ago, definitely. He knew he could go for longer but his arm was throbbing with every beat of his heart, the innocence demanding the food that would fuel it. If any akuma attacked him right now, he would most probably die. Every akuma was flying solo now – it was hard to get orders from a dead master, and as such they were even more dangerous than before purely due to the fact that it was hard to know what they were thinking.

This lack of leadership meant something different to each individual akuma – some were deciding that they rather enjoyed not killing people, and others had become even more violent than before. Then there were the weaker ones, the level ones, all of which were completely lost without orders, unsure who they should attack or if they should even do any attacking at all.

"Allen, are you alright?" He looked to his left and managed to produce a smile for the young girl walking beside him. She was wearing the simple blue dress of a peasant, the fabric ripped and burnt, the whole skirt of it stained dark with blood. Hopefully there would be some clothes along with the food that Timcanpy said was in the once beautiful mansion-like house they were walking through. Even if she wasn't really a person, Allen felt as though he was letting her down somehow by allowing her to dress in such a garment.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just a little hungry." She rolled her eyes at his answer, giving him a light slap on the arm as half-hearted punishment for his obvious lie. "Okay, maybe more than a little."

"I know that. Everyone in a five kilometre radius with ears knows it." His stomach was poked lightly, and the girl smiled cheekily, wide hazel eyes shining. Ever since Allen had found her and named her, she'd been ecstatic, saying that she was so happy because she had been given a purpose again, a new master and friend. She was a level two akuma who had spent the last five months wandering around the ruins of London, unsure what to do (much like Allen himself, who'd been trapped in the place for nearly a year.) Allen had found her sitting on the sidewalk, staring across the deeply potholed road with unfocused eyes. The soul attached to her hadn't actually looked as tortured as he'd expected, seeming almost relaxed as it sat in much the same position as the akuma it was trapped in. It was the case of many of the souls he saw nowadays, now that the Earl's influence was gone. Taking pity on her (and also feeling rather lonely after spending almost a year with only a golem for company), he had approached her and asked if she'd like to accompany him on a trip to a nearby hospital to get some first aid supplies. She had said yes and hadn't left his side since.

There was a tug on his sleeve and Allen looked down at Rebecca, who was pointing to the left, where Timcanpy hovered in front of a partially open door. "There's food in there?" In answer Tim flew inside, Allen and Rebecca trailing along after the golem and emerging into a large kitchen. Allen wrinkled his nose at the pungent smell of expired food, which didn't have one place of origin but seemed to seep from the very walls. There was a large fruit bowl on a nearby counter, and Allen watched in mortified fascination as Rebecca stroked the thick furry mound of mould that had made the place home, the akuma unaffected by the stench in the room. There were pots and pans on the stove, filled with unidentifiable mush that Allen supposed had once been food but was now a bacteria farm, and the glass door of the oven had been made completely opaque by the white algae-like mould growing inside the contraption. He definitely didn't want to open that door.

"Um, when I said food I meant edible food, Tim." In response the golem bit his right arm before flying over to one of the many cupboards, this one open a crack. Cautiously Allen reached over and slowly opened it fully, eyes lighting up when a wealth of large jars full of preserved fruit seemingly materialized from the darkness of the back of the cupboard. Stomach letting off its loudest rumble yet, his arm was near twitching with impatience as he took a few seconds to simply marvel at what he'd found. "Tim… I love you…" this was said distractedly as Allen reached into the cupboard and removed a jar of peach slices with something close to reverence, tears of joy sparkling in the corners of his eyes as he just stared in wonder at the sweet, fleshy, orange slices, his mouth watering in anticipation.

"Oh good, you found some food." Allen nodded as he held the jar in a tight hug, sighing in pleasure as he looked at the array of jars before him. There had to be around twenty of them. The cook in house must have been an absolute genius. _If only Jerry was here… _"Well are you just gonna stare at it all day or eat it?"

"I'll eat it!" Allen said quickly, sweeping three jars into his arms. "I'll eat it ALL!" Blinking at the manic look in her friends' eye, Rebecca took a slow step back, sensing danger if she went any closer to the cupboard full of jars.

"Er, okay, you do that then. It's not like I need to eat anyway."

"And I have never been more thankful for that fact…" After a few more seconds of awkward silence, Allen blushed, seeming to come to his senses, and smiled sheepishly at the akuma. "Um, right. Timcanpy, are there any clothes we can change into around here?" In response the golem bobbed up and down, its version of a nod. "Great, then lead the way please."

Two minutes later Allen sat cross-legged on a king sized bed, pouring the whole jar of peaches straight into his mouth all at once as Rebecca rummaged through the walk-in wardrobe. The room was large and airy, decorated in deep purples and soft pinks, clearly the room of a young girl. The fine clothing in wardrobe was a giveaway to how well off the former owner of the room had been. Allen wasn't really paying attention though, pouring a jar of pear halves into his mouth before he slowed down and ate a jar of plums at a near-normal pace, eating slow enough to actually taste the flavour of the food. By the time he was finished he didn't feel near full, but he was used to that now. Food had become a luxury, and it took a lot of self-control but Allen managed to survive and still have fuel for his innocence even though he only ate about a tenth of what he used to each day (that is, if he actually had _any_ food each day.)

"Okay, I'm done!" Allen turned with a proper smile on his face, able to think clearly with some food in his stomach, but the smile shook as he tried not to laugh. Rebecca was wearing a high necked and long sleeved green dress liberally embroidered with blue flowers, along with a pair of delicate black leather boots. She had also found a fur ruff in the wardrobe and obviously decided that it would work well if worn as a hat, but it failed to stay vertical and ended up flopping to the side, making her look, well, stupid. Far be it from Allen to laugh at a young girl though, so he just nodded and turned to Tim, who seemed to understand why his master couldn't speak and floated out the door to lead them to their next destination.

In the room three doors down the hall was a cupboard full of men's clothes, and as such most of it was too big for Allen. In the end he had to settle for making some haphazard alterations, ending up with a pair of tightly belted black pants, the shorn hems reaching down to cover his worn boots and hover barely an inch from the ground, and a baggy white button up shirt that completely covered both of his hands. The ensemble was completed by the ever-present red bow (which was somehow still pristine) and covered up by a black hooded trench coat which ended at the same point the trouser hems did. It reminded him of the old style exorcist coats, and he smiled with a hint of nostalgia. If only the other exorcists were here to share the memories with…

"Ooh, Allen, look at this!" A manically grinning Rebecca struck a pose with the black top hat that she had obviously found in the wardrobe Allen was looking through. The ruff lay abandoned on the bed, and Allen spared a moment of sympathy for the thing before smiling at Rebecca's happiness, trying not to be reminded of the Earl and the top hat that he (once) wore.

"You look, um, pretty?"

A laugh. "Of course I don't, I'm an akuma. Don't feel the need to compliment me."

"Um… it's hideous?" For that he got a smack in the back of the head and a roll of the eyes. Bewildered, Allen decided it was time to change the subject. "Er, anyway, I was thinking that we should make this our, base of operations you could say. Until the food runs out."

"It won't be for very long then," Rebecca joked, surveying herself in the mirror, having apparently completely forgotten that she was annoyed with Allen. "Will we start hunting again now that you have a food supply?"

"Yes, I was thinking that we should go the Thames again, there always seems to be hoards of level ones hanging around the banks."

"Eh? Aren't we going to attack some higher levels? The Ones are so boring, I just have to stand there and watch while you do all the attacking." Even though Rebecca would willingly kill akuma alongside Allen he wouldn't let her, as only a weapon made of innocence could free the souls trapped in the akuma. As a result she only saw action when they tackled level twos or above (though thankfully, they had never run into any level fours); helping Allen weaken the akuma and then letting the exorcist have the final blow.

"Well, just think of it as a warm up. I haven't used my innocence for a while, and when that happens it may get a little… jittery, you could say. I don't want to be fighting to control my innocence whilst trying to attack a high level akuma."

"Oh, all right. Well hurry up then, I wanna see you in action!"

* * *

"Bloody hell, Allen. Sure you don't need any help?"

The exorcist in question chuckled nervously as he stared down at the River Thames from the factory he and Rebecca were standing on top of. You could hardly see the water for the akuma, and he took a second to gulp down the bile that rose in his throat at the sight of so many suffering souls. And they were suffering; this large group of level ones appeared to have dealt with the sudden upheaval of having only their own orders to follow by going insane. As Allen watched with disgust and Rebecca with fascination a large group suddenly started attacking each other, the souls attached to them curled in the foetal position, hands grasping, futile, at their empty skulls.

"Innocence, invocate!" For a few seconds Allen allowed himself to smile as the comforting mantle of Clown Crown surrounded him, flexing his claw-like hand before turning it into his oversized broadsword with a quiet command. Usually he wouldn't use his sword for mere level ones, but it was useful to have a weapon with a long reach when destroying such a large number at one time. Removing Timcanpy from its perch on his head, he placed the golem on top of Rebecca's hat before smiling at the akuma and jumping off the building, right into the middle of the fighting level ones.

Not giving himself any time to be overwhelmed by the feeling of being surrounded by so many suffering souls (as though he was trapped in hell), he did a swift three hundred and sixty degree pirouette, his sword slicing through what must have been twenty akuma at once, clearing all the ground around him in a two metre radius before he took another jump into the air, repeating the process again and again. After ten of these manoeuvres he paused on top of a nearby house for a few seconds rest, slightly out of breath, and surveyed his progress. The phalanx of akuma had been thinned considerably, and most of the ones left were still too confused by the sudden and unexpected deaths of their fellows to pose much danger to him when he went back among them. There appeared to be around fifty left, half of what there had been before. Nodding to himself, he readied for another jump onto the battlegrounds, innocence pulsing merrily through his blood.

He lost himself in the battle, moving instinctually and just enjoying the familiar dance that was combat, smiling at the freed souls that smiled or bowed their thanks to him, waving at one beaming young boy whilst in the middle of a somersault. It was so nice to have easy opponents when rusty; tomorrow he and Rebecca would tackle the more powerful akuma lurking in the city. Reminded of his charge, he took a quick glance in her direction after disposing of another akuma with a quick stab, seeing her watching in fascination as Tim hovered near the edge of the roof, obviously recording Allen's antics. Rebecca was quite enamoured with Allen's fighting style, the quick dodges and complicated acrobatics a new thing to a heavy-handed akuma that relied on brute strength instead of dexterity.

Ten minutes later, Allen wiped his forehead with the back of hand as he disposed of the last akuma with a quick horizontal slash, nodding at the stern-looking man that bowed stiffly to him in thanks. Letting out a long breath, he activated his cursed eye, whose radius covered most of the central city with ease. It had developed quickly in the last year as he came to rely on it more, his survival instinct pushing both his innocence and the curse further than he had before. As a result the curse had a bigger radius and gave him completely accurate readings of the level and number of the akuma in the area, and his innocence managed to be just as powerful as before without needing near as much fuel. There were more level ones scattered around the banks further up the river, either stationary or moving slowly. To the north east there was quite a large concentration of level twos, around fifty, and there were five level threes among their number also. Luckily that seemed to be the biggest threat, the rest of the akuma in his radius rouges ranging from levels one to two and a couple of threes.

Closing his eyes, he rid himself of the monocle-like contraption that was the more developed stage of his curse before spinning around, sword poised against the akuma behind him. "Oh, Rebecca, sorry." He took a second to study the soul attached to the akuma. It looked just as relaxed as usual, and with a silent sigh of relief that he wouldn't have to kill his only friend that could talk, he deactivated his innocence and patted Timcanpy, who had once again settled itself on Allen's head.

"Jitters all worked out?" Rebecca asked with a grin, tucking in the escaped red ribbon hanging outside of his trench coat and patting his chest in a disconcertingly maternal fashion.

"It all went surprisingly smooth, actually. Crown Clown must be getting used to being in stasis so often."

"Mm, yeah, I'll just pretend I know what you're talking about." A pause, and then a sickly-sweet grin. "Soo, when will _I_ get to work out my jitters? It's been too long, really."

"There's a large group of Twos and Threes not too far off, we can tackle those tomorrow." They started strolling slowly through the streets, heading back to the mansion. Allen grinned to himself when he thought of the wealth of food awaiting him there. He would indulge today for old time's sake, and allow himself to have another jar of fruit. He had seen a delicious looking jar of apricot halves…

"Yay! I can't wait!" Rebecca laughed merrily, twirling the top hat whilst it was balanced on one finger as she skipped along beside him, her matted mass of dark brown hair bouncing. Frowning, Allen fingered his own hair, which was more grey than white, and resolved to find out if the mansion had running water. He smelt worse than Lavi did after a Saturday night spent in the dusty back rooms of the Order library, bent over musty old books with his nose near touching the pages.

* * *

The sound of splashing water and small chuckles reached Allen's ears as he sat outside the bathroom door, waiting his turn as he leant back against the wall, knees drawn up to his chest and Timcanpy coiled up on top of them. As he stared unseeingly at the other wall of the corridor, thinking of nothing, he reached into the jar beside him and drew out another apricot half, slowly eating the fruit before blinking out of his reverie and sighing tiredly.

Outside the window the sun was setting, the sky painted in splashes of blood red and deep purple. Looking down at Tim, he tapped the golem lightly on the head, and it looked expectantly up at him. "Check to see if the golems are back online please Tim." After the final battle, Allen had gotten quite a shock when Tim had fallen silent in the middle of a call to Komui. Ever since then Allen had asked Tim every night to try and connect with another golem, any of them, and every night the little golden golem had been unsuccessful. Not for the first time he silently thanked Cross for modifying Tim, making him separate from the main golem network and able to work completely on his own.

Nodding, Tim pushed himself more upright, tail straight up in the air like an antenna, wings spread.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Watching Tim with half-lidded eyes, Allen dipped his hand into the jar and very slowly ate another apricot.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The sunset had changed, the purple fading to navy and the red now more maroon.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The jar was empty now, his hand meeting cold glass when he reached down into it again. Tim fell silent, wings and tail drooping as he kept staring up at Allen, familiar with this nightly ritual by now.

"Tim, show me a video please."

Tim opened his mouth and the hologram appeared, the screen showing him the time that he first went to the Dark Order. Allen wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his head in them, hair hanging in front his face like a shield as he listened to Kanda's yells and Linalee's scolding, smiling faintly at the stuttering voice of the frightened Gatekeeper, slowly falling into a doze as he listened to the cadence of the familiar voices.

If only he knew where they were.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own D. Gray-man D:

A/N: The second chapter. Thanks to the reviewers, particularly ritachi. Your review was a monster! (but a good one, like King Kong. Or something.) Anyways, hope you all enjoy:

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Allen woke up slowly, the lulling sound of rain pattering against the roof making it hard not to just fall back to sleep. With great effort he sat up, and after a moment of disorientation remembered that he was sleeping in the room that he had found his clothes in yesterday. In the far right corner of the room the roof had caved in slightly, sending a steady stream of rain dripping down onto the thin carpet. To his left Tim was curled up on the pillow beside him, wings tucked in and tail coiled around his small body as though he were a cat.

Smiling, Allen gave the golem a pet on the head before throwing off the warm duvet and running over to the chair to the left of the bed where he had slung his clothes the night before, getting dressed before the chill of the morning air could get to him too badly. It was nearing winter again, but at least he could spend this one with a warm bed and company (however strange and eccentric said company was.) The thick black trench coat was also a blessing.

Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, Allen made a beeline for the kitchen, followed by Timcanpy. He opened up the Blessed Cupboard (his private name for the cupboard with edible food in it) and took down a jar of pears to have for breakfast. He then made his way to the dining room on the first floor; eating in a kitchen decorated by mould and reeking like a garbage heap didn't do much for his appetite.

He was greeted by an enthusiastic Rebecca (restless after spending the whole night with no-one to talk to, as akuma didn't need to sleep), who gave him a hug and ruffled up his clean hair, the uneven spikes wild after her rough treatment. It wasn't very easy to get a good haircut when you did it yourself using a kitchen knife, but because Allen was unused to long hair it kept getting in his way when he was fighting, such an attribute not fitting well with his acrobatics. He really didn't know how Kanda put up with it.

"We're gonna tackle that big group to the northeast today, right? It's been too long since I've had a good fight," said Rebecca with a slightly bloodthirsty grin as Allen gobbled down pear halves, yet again fiddling with her top hat.

Allen nodded in the middle of a bite, modifying his eye with a silent command and checking the locations of the akuma in the city at the moment. The big group of Twos and Threes were in pretty much the same area, around a twenty minute walk away, and they were still the biggest threat by far.

"Great. D'you want me to find an umbrella or sommat? I know my darling little Allen doesn't enjoy getting wet. I tell him that he's actually already pretty wet but he doesn't want to believe me." After this strange little speech Rebecca grinned and flounced off, seemingly in search of said umbrella. Allen just stared after her, blinking in bewilderment, before deciding that he would never understand how Rebecca's mind worked and leaving it at that. Focusing on his food would be a much more fruitful action.

Ten seconds later he finished the pears, and then stared morosely down at the empty jar. His relatively recently found self control when it came to food seemed to have decided to stay back in his warm bed today, because he _really_ wanted another jar. Or five. But Rebecca came running back in with two good sized black umbrellas in her hands just in time, and reluctantly Allen decided to focus on the more important things.

"Eh? With that speech you gave I would have thought you were too tough for an umbrella, Rebecca." This comment was said with a kind grin, making it clear that Allen held no malice.

"I just decided to keep you company. Wouldn't want everyone to think you're a total wuss, right?"

"Mm, I'm sure that was it." Never the less Allen took his umbrella with a grateful smile, and he checked for Tim (who was located hovering by his right shoulder) before nodding to Rebecca, who led the way out of the mansion.

When they got outside it was drizzling, the kind of rain that seems light but goes on for so long that _everything_ gets thoroughly soaked. Almost in synch with each other they opened their umbrellas and stepped out onto the cobbled streets, not bothering to lock the door. There were no people around to get inside and it wasn't as if a flimsy wooden barrier would stop any akuma that were determined to break in. They walked in companionable silence, Rebecca humming tunelessly as Allen studied the silent city. Even after being here for more than a year, it was still unnerving to see a place that was supposed to be a bustling metropolis so still and abandoned, the majority of the houses possessing boarded up windows and firmly shut and locked doors.

He looked absently to the left, following the lines of boarded up windows with his eyes, blinking in surprise when he saw one that lacked a wooden barrier. It had obviously been smashed at some point, jagged bits of glass still sticking out from the frame. White curtains were half drawn, glaring at him from the gloomy depths of the room. As Allen watched the curtains twitched in the breeze… once… twice…

He frowned. The rain was still falling steadily, straight down from the heavens. There _was_ no breeze. Deciding that it was good to be paranoid, he activated his eye. There were no akuma in a two kilometre radius. Huh… _maybe it was just a trick of the eyes._ And he would have left it at that and kept walking, if the curtains hadn't twitched again, an orange something peeping out from behind the white.

"Ah!" Allen exclaimed, immediately clapping a hand over his mouth and cursing himself for his stupidity. The orange thing had disappeared; obviously Allen's little gasp had alerted it to the fact it was being watched. What a stupid mistake – it had just been so surprising to see what might actually be a genuine sign of life in a place that he knew for a fact was deserted.

"What's going on? Are you all right?" Rebecca was frowning at him in concern, following his gaze and seeing only a smashed window. "Is there something in there?"

"Yeah… I think so. And it's not an akuma." He spoke softly, treading silently closer to the building as he kept peering up at the window, alert for any further movement. There was none. "I'll go check," he said to Rebecca in a stage whisper as he collapsed his umbrella and leaned it against the wall of the building. "You stay here." The akuma nodded her consent, and Allen crept into the house.

Immediately after he stepped over the threshold his nostrils were assaulted by an ungodly smell, and Allen pinched his nose as he tried not to react. It was even worse than the odour in the kitchen of the mansion, which was saying something. A further inspection of the room revealed the source of the stench, which he now realised was the pungent odour of death. In a bloodstained armchair in the corner of the room a corpse sat hunched over itself, masses of long black hair shielding most of the body from view. Allen could not have been more thankful for the fact as he let out a near silent whimper, eyes wide in horror. He had known that not all of the people of London had evacuated, but never had he seen such horrible proof of that fact.

Stomach rolling and eyes filling with tears as he unwillingly imagined what this poor person's last moments had been like; he turned swiftly away and headed towards the room where he thought he had seen movement in, pushing the scene of the corpse sitting among the ruins of a bloodied living room to the back of his mind. Now was not the time.

He climbed the stairs slowly, silently, thankful for the fact that they didn't creak. The window he had been looking at belonged to the room at the end of the landing with a half-opened door. Trying not to breathe whist still staying alive, Allen crept along, cautiously poking his head into the room.

A closed umbrella with an orange pumpkin sitting atop it as a kind of head leaned against the far wall, frightened eyes fixed on the window.

"Lero?"

"LERO!"

And with this fearful cry the startled umbrella promptly jumped up and flew right through the window, Allen running after it as it did so. "Wait, Lero, I need to ask you-" He stopped. It was useless continuing - the umbrella was just a speck in the distance, far out of hearing range. Sighing in frustration, Allen looked down at Rebecca's confused expression.

"What on earth was that? Did you know it?"

"Yeah, that was the Earl's umbrella, Lero…" Allen frowned in the direction the umbrella had flown. Had it been lurking around London ever since the battle, just like he had? "Anyway… I'll be down in a second."

This time he tramped down the stairs, the wood groaning quietly under him at the abuse. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, before he went back into the living room, averting his eyes from the corpse as he held his breath and strode towards the front door, closing it behind him when he exited. The umbrella lay in the same place as it had before, and Allen picked it up and opened it, joining Rebecca in the middle of the street.

"I had no idea the Earl had something like that… what does it do?"

"Um, well, the only thing it can really do is fly. The Earl and Road used Lero for transport sometimes. Oh, and I think it holds the Earl's sword when he's not using it. Other than that it seems a little… useless."

"Ah, don't bother being polite, Allen," Rebecca said with a roll of her eyes. "It's only a talking umbrella. What you should really have said is that it's utterly useless and a right coward."

"But, if you're more polite, more people will want to listen to you and more people will like you…" Mana had told him that once, and ever since then he had taken it as gospel. It seemed to be true, anyway; Kanda was mean to everyone and as a result he pretty much had no friends. Sure, Allen and the other exorcists respected him as a comrade and included him in all their friendly activities, but he wasn't the sort of person anyone would talk casually with or have a heart to heart with. Even if some people thought Allen was weak just because he was kind, he didn't mind. You could always use someone's underestimation of you to your advantage.

This little speech earned him a poke in the side, and he jumped with a yelp, glaring sideways at the ever-grinning Rebecca. "No matter what I say, nothing will stick, huh? You're a stubborn little tyke."

Allen beamed. "Why thank you."

"… I can't even tell if you're being sarcastic or not. Anyways, enough talk! Let's go and beat up some akuma!"

Reminded of the reason they were outside in the first place, Allen nodded his agreement, speeding up slightly as Rebecca kept pace with him. A quick scan with his eye revealed they were about two minutes away, and as such Allen activated his innocence, Clown Crown's white cape flaring out behind his black trench coat as it came to life. Beside him Rebecca shifted into her true form, which looked like a bull that could stand on its hind legs like a human, possessing four sharp claws on each limb instead of hooves. Jutting out from her head were two huge horns, reaching out around one foot in front of her. They were somewhat like the fangs of a snake in that, if you were gouged by them, lethal poison would seep into your blood from the tips. It was a substance that affected you in much the same way as a bullet from a level one, but this poison couldn't be nullified by the wielder of a parasitic innocence like the bullets could be and was much stronger.

The first akuma they ran into were a group of level twos, and as Rebecca stood back Allen ran into their midst, piercing one with his claws before twisting around and sheathing in half two others. The last four he defeated with a quick succession of stabs, the akuma too surprised by the sight of an exorcist to put up much of a fight. They found another, larger clump of twos after running for a few seconds, Rebecca charging at them horns first, scattering them and then occupying them whilst Allen darted around, picking them off one by one. After this Allen did a scan and found that there were twenty more twos and five threes left.

"This next group contains five twos and two threes, you know what to do."

With that they ran forward again, Allen using Clown Belt to get himself on the roofs so he could take the akuma by surprise. Rebecca stayed on the ground, and as she kept the threes occupied Allen jumped down onto the back of one of the twos, stabbing the three others that surrounded it in quick succession before beheading the one he stood on, jumping off just before its body disintegrated. Before him Rebecca was dodging the attacks of the threes (something she had learned to do from Allen), managing to give them glancing blows now and then. The one that held a faint resemblance to a bird had obviously been gouged by her horns, movements sluggish as the poison took effect.

It was this one Allen targeted first, hearing the whispers of "help me, please," from the soul attached to it, which was almost completely eclipsed by darkness like the souls of all level threes were. He nodded into the darkness, giving the soul a kind smile, before turning to its owner and drawing a glowing cross in the air in front of the akuma with one finger. It was bathed in light for a moment before disintegrating, the soul whispering its thanks before it was set free. He turned to his right to see Rebecca still playing a dangerous game of tag with the other three that looked like a cockroach but was bigger and uglier (if that was possible.) Sensing Allen's gaze, Rebecca took her cue and backed away as Allen leapt in front of the three, blocking its blow with his arm before ducking under the limb that had attacked him and plunging his claws into the things stomach. It swore at him, distracted by the pain, and Allen took the opportunity to exorcise it in the same manner that he had the other.

The two nodded at each other in synch and carried on, walking forward with more caution now. After two battles, the last being rather attention grabbing, the akuma before them could well have noticed the deaths of their fellows. Indeed, Allen peeked around the corner of the next building and saw the last bunch of akuma standing in some sort of hodgepodge battle formation, the whole company eerily silent. He and Rebecca were expected.

He turned to tell her this. "They know we're coming. There's fifteen level twos and three level threes."

"We'll have to change the plan of attack then," Rebecca stated as she flexed her claws, voice deep and guttural. "If they're prepared, they'll actually think of using their abilities." During the last fights they had had the advantage of surprise, and as such the akuma hadn't utilized their unique abilities like Rebecca had been using hers all along. This next group would be different, harder. Allen called forth his broadsword, leaning against it as he thought.

"Okay. I'll go and fight, you hang back." When Rebecca opened her mouth to protest, Allen put a hand up to silence her. "I'm sorry, I know you want to help, but you'll get in the way. Now that they're prepared the twos will be just as strong as you and the threes will be way beyond your capabilities. It would be too dangerous to even distract them."

"Ugh, where's all your politeness gone now you wanker? Nice to know that my presence is completely pointless." Without her human face it was hard to tell if Rebecca was joking or not, but Allen decided not to care. Now was the time for battle.

"Clown belt." The office buildings' flat concrete roof was a blessing as Allen crept forward until he was peering over the edge at the akuma below. None of them had thought to look up. Taking a breath, Allen jumped off the edge, broadsword poised so that it pierced through the stomach of the level three he landed on from behind. It gave a yelp of surprise as it was destroyed, Allen already darting away to exorcise five twos with one long sweep of his sword before running through another three. Cart wheeling out of the reach of one two possessing two long blades in the place of arms, he used the flat shoulders of a robot like level two as a kind of springboard, landing behind the bladed two and beheading it, dodging a blow from a two behind him before reversing his blade and stabbing it in the stomach without looking.

A huge bullet was fired towards him from his left, and he ducked under it and rolled to his feet in front of the two who owned the bullet, smacking it in the head with the flat of his sword. As it crumpled he pirouetted, sword shearing in half the two level twos approaching him from the right. It almost got a third but this level two, who was covered head to toe in dark armour, managed to catch the broadsword with two gauntlet-clad hands, grunting with the effort. Startled, it took only this little moment of inattention to get hit with two blows at once from the right from two of the level twos left. Allen was thrown into the air, travelling around ten metres before he smashed, hard, into the concrete wall of a building. His broadsword, dropped by the two that had stopped it, split into particles and flew to Allen, morphing back into his claw-like hand.

Grimacing in pain, he clambered to his feet, one hand braced against the building as he tried to get his wind back, head bowed. When he looked up it was only to see what looked like a white-hot ball of fire speeding towards his head, sent by the remaining three. He managed to raise his arm up to protect himself at the last minute, but the force of the blast sent him crashing through the wall of the building and out the other side to land with a smack on the cobbled street, a bolt of pain landing through his skull as his innocence deactivated.

Blinking blood from his eyes, Allen thought he might have heard a cry of his name, followed by a loud scream of rage. But his head was throbbing and black spots were dancing in front of his eyes, along with a golden blob that might have been Timcanpy, who had been hovering by his shoulder the whole time, recording everything. Gradually, he slipped away into darkness.

* * *

He woke up in his bed, blinking up at the cracked ceiling in surprise. What had happened? How had he gotten here? Was Rebecca okay? At this thought he quickly sat up, grimacing as his head spun and his ribs ached. Inspecting both areas, he found them bandaged up tightly. He was wearing only his pants, his other clothes piled up on the chair he used for that purpose. A fluttering to his right was revealed to be Tim, and the golem nuzzled up to his cheek before alighting on his shoulder, wrapping its tail around his neck.

Flinging the bedcovers off, Allen turned until his feet were hanging off the edge of the bed and then slowly got up. Satisfied that he wasn't feeling enough pain for it to be distracting (it helped that he had a large amount of experience in blocking out pain), he dressed quickly, noting that the sky was dark outside, no rain falling though everything still looked quite damp. Ramming his feet into his boots, he walked through the open door. There were no lights on on this floor, and so he went downstairs. The dining room door was wide open, yellow light spilling out onto the deep red carpet of the hallway. The silent house making him feel uncomfortable, Allen crept forward, peeking around the door frame.

Rebecca lay on the dining table on her back, staring up absently at the ceiling. Her clothes were bloodstained, the top hat sitting on the table to the left of her head. But what shocked Allen the most was the soul attached to her, which was bathed in shadows like the souls of level threes.

"Allen?" All of a sudden Rebecca was standing again, top hat perched on her head, beaming at him. "You're feeling better!" This exclamation was followed by a hug which somewhat strained his damaged ribs, though not enough to make him tell her so. He hugged back hesitantly, staring at her soul.

"What happened, Rebecca?"

"Well, after that level three knocked you out I killed the rest of the twos; I think I was able to because they were so surprised. And because of that I had enough fuel to evolve to level three and defeat the last three." Rebecca pulled back from the hug to beam at him, obviously ecstatic about this. Allen tried to smile back but only managed a faint twitch of the lips. Akuma evolved after they had consumed enough humans… and maybe, from what Rebecca was saying, they could gain power by consuming each other too. She had consumed five level twos, and the innocent souls attached to them. His stomach rolled.

Rebecca's cheery expression faded to something unreadable as she watched the emotions on Allen's face. "Don't exorcise me, Allen. Not yet. I can help you more now… surely you wouldn't want to kill such a good comrade and friend?"

His heart battled with his mind. He didn't miss the way that she was talking, trying to convince him of her innocence and play on his need for companionship. It made him trust her even less. Her soul… he glanced at it. It was dark and silent. But… in the month he had known her, he hadn't felt so lonely. He didn't know what he would do if he had to go back to those times, where he spent so many hours talking to a golem and watching videos of his friends. He had a feeling that it would be worse this time around, going back to such an existence after experiencing what it was like to have a friend in this ruined city.

"Okay," he said against his better judgement, swallowing nervously. "Just for a little while longer."

"Thank you, Allen," she reached a hand towards him, eyes burning into his own as she smiled. "You won't regret it." The hand settled onto his good arm, squeezed slightly, and then didn't let go. There was a spark of hunger in the depths of her gaze. Timcanpy's tail tightened around his neck.

"O-Of course I won't. We're friends. I'd do anything for a friend." He wasn't sure who he was trying to convince. And then Rebecca took a step closer to him and he couldn't stand it anymore; he pushed her away and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him and leaning against it as Rebecca banged on the other side. "I'll see you in the morning!" With this he sprang to his feet and raced up to his room, slamming the door behind him, the vibrations causing little white bits of plaster to rain down on him from the cracks in the ceiling.

He leaned against the door, breathing heavily as he tried to blink the tears from his eyes. It didn't work – one escaped to roll down his cheek, followed by a sudden rush of others as he cried silently, head bowed.

He swallowed convulsively as he tried to stop the tears and calm down, a hollow feeling in his stomach. God, did he need food right now. Comfort food. He always felt better after lots of food. Sniffing repeatedly, he wiped the tears from his cheeks and walked forward to collapse face down on his bed, curling up into the foetal position as Tim hovered in front of him, bobbing back in forth in agitation. Allen smiled and petted the golem. At least he knew there was someone he could rely on to stay by his side.

"Check the golem network, will you, Tim?" His voice was croaky, cracking with fatigue as the day's events caught up to him.

Immediately loud beeps filled the silent air, and Allen half-listened with his eyes closed, feeling exhausted. As silence fell after Tim once again failed to connect, he sighed without any real feeling and slipped into a dreamless sleep, still fully clothed.


End file.
